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Sample Othello Essay

“Heaven Is My Judge”: Literary Devices in Othello

William Shakespeare's classic drama Othello centers around the two conflicting characters of scheming, manipulative Iago and the honorable, but often times faithless Othello. Despite the fact that these men are completely opposite in character, Iago commands such persuasive powers that he literally starts to affect Othello’s thinking, altering the figures of speech he uses and his perceptions of those close to him. Both Othello and Iago use many of the same literary devices and much of the same figurative language to express not only their opinions of those around them, but also their general conceptions of the workings of the universe on a more spiritual level.

Act I of Othello closes with Iago giving a soliloquy introducing his plan to make Othello lose faith in his wife. This speech reveals Iago to have an incredibly materialistic and conceited nature, as he reduces everyone mentioned to an object easily capable of manipulation. Roderigo becomes Iago's purse, Cassio is simply a handsome, noble man who can be used to make Othello jealous, and Othello himself is “As tenderly [led] by the nose/ As asses are” (1163). Even Iago's own wife, Emilia, is referred to as Iago's “office,” an item that he has earned, rather than a woman he has vowed to love. He concludes this speech by saying “Hell and night/ Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light,” comparing Othello and Desdemona's marriage to a “monster birth,” while equating himself and his deceptions to Satan. Iago continuously makes comments about how hell is superior to heaven. In a later soliloquy near the end of Act II, Iago continues to relate the people he is manipulating to objects, this time also comparing the entire scenario to a game in which he plays the villain and Othello is a prize to be won. Iago mocks himself and his feigned innocence in this speech, exclaiming “Divinity of hell!/ When devils will the blackest sins put on/ They do suggest at first with heavenly shows,/ As I do now” (1180). Iago hates that he must play an innocent underling in his own plot, but at the same time he realizes that the easiest method to achieve his goals is to hide his true intentions under a cloak of innocence.

Othello's soliloquy in Act V, before he kills Desdemona, bears many parallels to the speeches made by Iago throughout the play. Othello, like Iago, objectifies Desdemona several times, first refusing to spill her blood, for fear of ruining her “smooth as monumental alabaster” skin. He then says “Put out the light, and then put out the light” (1124), trying to give himself the resolve to literally extinguish the room's light before figuratively extinguishing Desdemona's life. This comparison of Desdemona to an extinguishable candle, rather than granting conviction, serves to stay further action briefly while he fully considers the analogy. He muses that if he extinguishes a candle, he can always light it again, while if he “extinguishes” his wife, here compared to some object of intricate design, nothing can bring her life back. When Othello finishes the candle analogy, he repeats the same idea, this time comparing Desdemona to a rose that, once plucked, can never grow again. This speech is concluded with the very Iago-like statement “this sorrow's heavenly,/ It strikes where it doth love” (1125). Othello believes he is doing the right thing by killing his wife because according to his Christian beliefs, his God tests those He loves. This is not exactly what Iago was referring to when he mentioned devils putting on “heavenly shows,” but it greatly increases the audience's sense of dramatic irony to know that Othello believes himself to be doing the right thing, even at this late point in the play.

While Othello uses much of Iago’s own figurative language by the end of the play, he does so to achieve different results. Iago degrades every other character by comparing them to objects that can easily be manipulated, while Othello, when he dehumanizes people, somehow makes them out to be more than human. Likewise, when Iago makes reference to heaven and hell, he always describes how hell comes out on top. Othello, on the other hand, knows that heaven represents all that is good and right on Earth and so eventually throws himself at the mercy of his God, making him the tragic hero of the play.